Autodesk Snaps Social Video Into Picture

Who says social media technology and video functionality don't fit into the 3D CAD domain? In yet an another acquisition that might leave some diehard CAD aficionados scratching their heads, Autodesk is plunking down $60 million to acquire a small company I bet a lot of Design News' readers never knew existed: Socialcam, which provides a popular mobile app and Web-based service that lets users capture, edit, and share video.

What does a consumer video sharing service have to do with hard-core professional engineering? Autodesk officials say video can enhance the communication around design, particularly in a social, collaborative medium.

"Video is a powerful tool for storytelling and one that we believe can be more widely applied across the design and engineering workflow," Samir Hanna, vice president of the Autodesk Consumer Group, told us in an email exchange about the acquisition. "These are collaborative processes that require communication at every stage, from concept through to production."

With Socialcam, Hanna said, users can share videos in real-time from anywhere -- a capability lending itself to scenarios where engineers take video into the field and share it with key stakeholders to illustrate design changes or to document certain milestones.

The Socialcam smartphone app and Web-based service makes it easy to capture, edit, and share videos.(Source: Socialcam)

The Socialcam deal is Autodesk's latest move to flesh out its consumer-oriented design and content creation portfolio. It has been slowly laying down a technology foundation to accommodate do-it-yourselfers and support what it and many in the industry are calling "personal manufacturing." (See: 3D Modeling & Printing for 'Personal Manufacturing'.)

Specifically, Autodesk has released its Autodesk 123D family, including 123D Catch and 123 Make, to let anyone (not just would-be engineers) design and output original creations. There is also SketchBook, an online consumer drawing and paint service. Other acquisitions in this space have included the online photo editor Pixlr and the how-to site Instructables, where people swap ideas and methods for building things.

"Now with Socialcam, we will be able to bring video into that mix so that everyone has access to a range of creative tools so they can tell their story," Hanna told us.

Autodesk isn't the only 3D CAD company to dive into social media waters. We reported in April on Dassault Systemes buying NetVibes, a provider of what it calls sentiment analytics technology. NetVibes is being melded into Dassault's next-generation 3D Experience strategy, which will help companies capture what customers are saying and thinking about their products as part of the early design and requirement-gathering stage of product development.

Autodesk officials said it plans to invest in scaling the Socialcam platform, developing a more comprehensive set of tools for its users, and leveraging the technology to make its professional film and video content creation tools accessible to a broader audience. The Socialcam transaction is expected to close this quarter.

Using video to educate customers is well established. Allowing video to be created and edited may have some use in the design process. I am not sure of what "social media" brings to this. You don't need social media tools to create videos.

Actually, I was asking my favorite source of everything hip for the younger generation of prospecitve engineers, my son, about sociall media. I thnk it may be a passing fad. In the WSJ recently there was an article about how all the major social media companies were in trouble. Their stock was not doing well. Do you remember Google+. I like it better than facebook, but I don't use it much. I deleted my facebook account becuase it had been hacked. The only social media company that is doing well is LinkedIn. The primary media there is discussion groups (Design News has one). My source tells me this is where he, and his friends are spending their time. Don't forget, these fads go fast. Remember Myspace?

I agree Naperlou, that this particular acquisition is more about Autodesk's effort on the consumer side and less applicable for true professional engineers (perhaps a small segment), even though they'd like to think there's more interest.

But I disagree with your thoughts on social media being a fad (although, I sometimes wish that were so). While I wouldn't place a bet on Facebook or Google+ or any of the other existing platforms and technologies, I do think the way people are getting accustomed to communicating, collaborating, and sharing every mind-numbing tidbit that crosses their path will remain in some shape or form for the foreseeable future. That is until the tides turn, as they always do, and we shift back to a more traditional way of communicating. In some ways, technology advances are driving a type of communication and constant flow of information that I'm not sure the general populace wants or needs. But it's going to take a long time before that realization comes to be, especially as a generation raised on this as the norm enters the workplace.

Beth Stackpole : I really like the collabartive part of this. It all makes sense. I was into MEP design for awhile and it would be nice to show people what you mean. It would also be nice to capture video of a site before you go back to the office. We used to have to measure and draw most stuff on site....this is just so must better.

Beth Stackpole : Now about the social media aspect. You sure had a lot to say. I agree with ...well...I think about all of it. I do not like facebook for work purposes at all. I do think that there can be "social" media for companies that work together to share files and such. I believe that can be a great thing....if done correctly and securely. Some people have problems sharing files on the network at work, but they can share photos with the world with facebook or Flickr. This need to change. Either people need to get smarter...which won't happen, or incorporate some of these things into the corporate file sharing schema. Make it easier for people to share their ideas. I hate FB, but people can use it. So make it as easy as it is to share photos on FB as it is to share files(securely) with your colleagues. That's my 2 cents on it.

@Cadman-LT: Absolutely on target--you and no one else is going to upload CAD designs to FB or LinkedIn or any of those other public platforms to share models or collaborate with peers. But if there were systems that incorporated some of those social capabilities within the boundaries of traditional design tools and traditional networks (i.e., with security), it would open up doors to new kinds of knowledge sharing and collaboration. I'm not saying any of the existing tools are "the one," but we're inching closer.

I think that the idea of having a video auto-capture feature/software access is very effective ideal and concept considering that more and more feild engineers, doctors, teachers, and students, can share effectively live in real-time, exams, course work, and production work to increase effective constructive communications between students, associates, and business partners, good idea and purchase Autodesk!!

Agreed... I think that they will tweak the company's presence/apps to match their market targets. This move may just be a short-cut into the capability, as opposed to creating a video sharing service from scratch.

On the other hand, social media is absolutely evolving. I have started wondering if the FB IPO wasn't tied to a perceived (or actually tracked) slowdown in usage. Most things that are computer related are subject to rapid upgrades and replacement is seems.

SM per se may indeed be around for a long time, but any single company could change usage policies or go away very quickly. This move gives AutoDesk a level of control over its own destiny in this specific area.

Once AD, has developed a effective pipeline for an all-inclusive insertion of the Auto-Cap feature they will be more effective in the develpement of their exisiting and future product develpement, as a Sr. Network Automation Test Engineer, I have seen many a product like this be purchased from a name brand company only to be shelfed, and in this case I think that AD will use the product if not in their existing product line, as a revamp, or use it in future product releases, I also agree with others in this post that FB, TW, and others are on surface glue, if you really look at the product that Google offers, you can see that they in their mad dash for product acquistion is growing as well, like their purchase of the Nortel telcom patents, that give us google voice, and combined chat, overall this is a good purchase for AD.

I agree that some forms of social media have dissappeared and others may follow. But a product like this as well as linked in are becoming more and more legitamate. It is as if everything gets a chance and if it works, it survives.

I agree that some forms of social media have dissappeared and others may follow. But a product like this as well as linked in are becoming more and more legitamate. It is as if everything gets a chance and if it works, it survives.

Naperlou, I think there is a big difference between a poor business model (i.e. Facebook) and a true fad. Social networking of some sort on some website is here to stay, its just a matter of what it offers. Linked-in is useful and has a purpose. Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook really can grow old very quickly as they ultimately offer little of substance. I only use Facebook on occassion to stay in touch with distant family and friends. Its more convienent than writing a letter to everyone (hard to admit since it sounds lazy, but its just the modern world). But I really don't care about where someone ate dinner or that they won some video game.

My employer has engineers over many sites, but there are two other sites we collaborate with on a regular basis. One is in the UK and one in Arizona. Because of time zones and the distance, I could forsee a USEFUL form of business social networking where we could share ideas and information. Perhaps this has a specific purpose and perhaps its to share something we learned that might be useful to others. Ultimately it would have to be about leverage IP without being a distraction. The hardest part would be establishing a discipline of when to share or when your important discovery is basic knowledge to the rest of the team.

I think you hit it right on the head. Engineers are now having to collaborate throughout the world. And this may be the next tool that makes it a little easier requiring a little less travel and trouble.

Good point about reducing travel and aiding in global collaboration, but in some ways, tools like Webex and videoconferencing already aid in that. I definitey see utility for the engineering sector, but I think Autodesk will get the greatest bang for its buck with this technology in some of its other segments such as consumer and media and entertainment, where it already has a huge presence.

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